Ghardi's Battle
by Celesdragon
Summary: More chapters coming! I started this one a few weeks back, and I like how it's unfolding. My dear Yellow Shoyru Ghardi has to face her worst fears. Can she do it?


Ghardi's Battle  
~As told by Sheraw.  
  
  
It was the morning light coming through the window that woke Ghardi, and not the banging of the doors inside the neohome as her brothers and sister ran about getting ready for the day. She stretched in her bed, first the feet, then the arms, and finally her wings and tail. The sun was already up and peaking through the tree beside her window. She let the gentle sea breeze from the ocean caress her face and the sunlight warm her yellow pelt. It was good to live on Mystery  
Island, she thought to herself as she cautiously walked out of her room and into a typhoon of activity. She ducked under her younger brother, who was flying about down the hallway to breakfast and being chased by her younger sister, screaming about no flying in the house. She walked into the kitchen and sat down next to Sheraw, her other brother.  
  
"Morning as usual, huh." he mumbled around a mouthful of bread and Tigersquash. She just nodded, sighed, and reached for her meal. "OH Ghardi!" yelled her younger sister from the hallway, pinning down the youngest from flying away again. "You had a phone call this morning. C.D. called and told me to tell you that you're to meet her at the Island Mystic's hut at noon." Ghardi heard another bang, crash, and the sounds of Shoka getting away again and laughing all the way down the hall. She looked up at Sheraw, who was staring at her with a spot of Tigersquash on his nose. "Um, You got something there..." she began as  
he began to go cross-eyed to see his nose. Trying to keep a straight face, she quickly exited the kitchen and walked out of the house.  
  
She still had a couple of hours to spare before meeting C.D., so she quickly took off from the ground with a single wingbeat and went high above the Island, waving to the other early riders of the winds as she passed them. Looking off to the right, she spotted Fruity Path, one of the housing areas of the island. Landing on the porch, she knocked on the door. She smiled as a red Aisha answered the door. "He's not in, went off with your owner on some errand," the Aisha said rudely. Ghardi just nodded and took off from the ground again.  
  
She glanced at her watch, a present from Sheraw on her 1 year day, and noticed it was approaching noon. She angled her flight to head north, over the battledome arena to the Mystic's hut. As she passed over the arena, she glanced down to see a group of pets practicing out moves on each other. Her face clouded over for a minute as she recalled her one time in the arena a long time ago. She had been too young, too inexperienced, and too weak to battle the Skeith who knocked her out. A single tear fell into the clouds as she recalled the day after, staring at the line of adopters filing past her cage in the Adoption Center. One fight.. and she had been abandoned. She shook her head and cleared  
her mind as she approached the hut. I've been with C.D. for nearly a year now, events like that shouldn't bother me anymore. She landed outside the hut early, and sat down to wait for her owner.   
  
She nodded off after staring at the water for a couple of minutes and didn't awake till she heard someone cough. She looked widly about, and then smiled sheepishly as she saw C.D. and another yellow Shoyru smiling back at her. "Got here early, I see." jibbed C.D., "Just as well, we have some work to do." C.D. walked into the hut, leaving Ghardi alone with the other Shoyru. "Um, do you know what this is about?" She leaned over to her boyfriend, Deraxyl. "I really cannot say," he smiled back at her, sharing a quiet moment together. "Ghardi, Deraxyl, can you come here please?" called C.D. from inside the Mystic's hut. Both shoyrus sighed in unison and walked in, Derax holding the curtian aside for Ghardi. She blinked, eyes adjusting quickly to the semi-lit gloom inside. She sidestepped a table covered with masks, and ducked under a dangling set of wooden pipes. "In here." called C.D. from a room further inside, accompanied by some odd sounding chanting. She spared a glance back at Deraxyl, who was having issues removing a foot stuck in a pile of rope, and sighed, helping him loose.   
  
Blinking again, this time as noxious wafts of smoke welcomed her into the next room, Ghardi slowly made out C.D. sitting at a round table across from the Infamous Island Mystic. He was sitting in his chair, in full costume messing with some contraption covering the table. She stepped aside to allow Derax room to get into the room, and then moved forward to take the chair to the right of C.D. as Derax took the left chair. She looked back and forth from the Mystic and C.D. trying to figure out what all this was about. She had the sneaking feeling that Derax knew and just wasn't telling. She tried to catch his eye, but he kept looking away guiltily. She sighed and settled in, waiting for the Mystic to stop humming to himself and to reveal why they were here.   
  
"Ah, welcome you are! Come for advice?" He coughed as if he just realized they were there. C.D. coughed, and the Mystic frowned and then smiled again, "Oh YES! Time for a reading!" He bent back to his work on the table, messing with knobs and mumbling to himself. Ghardi rolled her eyes and let out a mighty sigh as this went on for several minutes. "HAH! A year has it been, little one?" He looked back up at her, catching her in the middle of a yawn. She gulped nervously and tried to look serious. The Mystic turned to C.D. and Derax, "It has been a year, has it not?" C.D. nodded and spared a quick smile for Ghardi. "A year, and still hiding? Time has moved quickly, but still have time to right things before the chance is gone forever." Ghardi listened to his ramblings, becoming very confused but still couldn't quiet a traitorious little feeling deep within her. No, she denied it. "Time has come to face it, little one. Do not worry, friends are here to help. No more hiding, time to fight." He turned back to her, and gave a smile. NO, she thought to herself. "Time to attempt something again." NOOO! She screamed inside, starting to shake. She glanced back at C.D. and Derax and saw them looking concerned back at her, but with a look of agreement on each of their faces. "NO!" She cried, and took off out of the hut, becoming airborne in a single wingbeat. Flying as fast and as far as she could, she sought only to put distance between her and that pain she thought she had left behind.   
  
"Ho there, windchaser.." Ghardi looked up from her musing, so tired mentally and physically from flying for hours that she missed the larger Scorchio pull up next to her on the wind. "Hi.." she offered back weakly, wiping away any last tears. "I'd ask if you were ok, but I have the feeling you'd hate me for it." the striped Scorch stated as the two Neopets glided on the evening thermal over the Ocean. "No, I'm ok. Just.. a bad day." She smiled even more weakly back at Aquadra. "Huh, and here I thought you Shoyrus just liked to fly for hours on end up here, looking as if you lost everything in the world." The Scorchio turned over and glided upside down, easily keeping pace with Ghardi. "You wanna talk about it?" She looked at Ghardi, who was barely able to even flap her wings anymore. "Yeah.." and both pets glided down to the edge of the Tiki Taku Islands.   
  
"And then I ran out, and was flying around till you found me."  
Ghardi recalled, while they sat on the beach under the giant statues northeast of the main island. Aquadra stared at the sunset for a few minutes, and then turned back to face the yellow Shoyru. "You're afraid of losing a battle again?" Ghardi shook her head. "Kinda.. Maybe.. I don't know. I'm afraid of going back to that place.. I'm afraid that C.D. won't want me anymore if I lose, just like my first human." The Scorchio looked at her and snorted. "If C.D. is anything like Litanime, it doesn't matter if you win or lose. I've lost more battles than I care to remember, and I don't see how you, my dear cousin, would be the first to be put in the pound for a lost battle over myself!" She snorted again and laughed, until Ghardi joined in laughing as well. "I guess it's kinda stupid to think that, then?" Ghardi looked up to Aquadra. "It's never stupid to admit that you are afraid, it's running from that fear that's stupid. If you always run, how can you beat it? You have to face that fear, stare it down till it's the one giving way, and you are left standing. If you fail, keep trying. It wasn't your fault that you were in the pound, you were what? A month old? Barely able to defend yourself then? Look at yourself now! I'd say you could beat the living daylights out of that Pant Devil if you so chose. I've seen you practicing in the dark, when noone around. You can win if you stand and face your fear." Ghardi nodded and grinned again, "I guess so." With the last of the sun ray's reaching the shore, both pets took off again, heading home to face reality and the new day. 


End file.
